Todai-ji
After the attacking deer in Nara we went to Todai-ji, where an enormous bronze Buddha is housed. When I say enormous, I really mean enormous. The statue weighs over 500 metric tons and is almost 15 meters in height. The fingers, according to wikipedia, are roughly the size of a human. How’s that for a little perspective?!
Aaron’s old supervisor took us to Todai-ji because it is where his dream of learning English began. When he was visiting, as an elementary school student, he saw a group of tourists with an English speaking guide. He watched the guide, listened, and decided that someday he also wanted to speak English well enough to be a guide himself.
He took us to Todai-ji and told us what he knew about it. The whole time we joked that perhaps another one of the small children wandering about us would watch him and grow up with the same dream that he had. I guess we will never know.
You could tell, just by watching the faces of people as they entered, that they were inspired. Jaws dropped, eyes opened a little wider. For some people there inspiration was a little more obvious and tangible. This man was sitting off to the side carefully observing and recreating the buddha in his sketchbook.
Around the statue there were some other large scale wood carvings. They were so detailed and intricate and evoked a kind of emotion that had all but disappeared while looking at the serene daibutsu.
